Accessing dynamic link libraries (DLLS)‎ and the application program interface (API)‎ windows

Abstract EN

Sooner or later you need capabilities that go beyond the core language and controls provided with any visual language such as Visual Basic, you could make direct calls to procedures contained in dynamic-link libraries (DLLs).

By calling procedures in DLLs, you can access the thousands of procedure form the Microsoft Windows operating system, as well as routines written in other languages.

As their name suggests, DLLs are libraries of procedures that applications can link to and use at run time rather than link to statically at compile time.

This means that the libraries can be updated independently of the application, and many applications can share a single DLL.

Microsoft Windows itself is comprised of DLLs, and other applications call the procedures within these libraries to display windows and giaphics, manage memory, or perform other, tasks.

These procedures are sometimes referred to as the Windows API or application-programming interface.